Things to know about your enclosure

Shower doors are not watertight

Enclosures are designed to prevent leaks under normal shower conditions.

Excessive water pressure, or directing the shower spray straight at the door, is not a normal shower condition and can result in leaks. Two children throwing buckets of water at each other will get water out of the tub. So will cleaning the enclosure with the spray nozzle.

If you find puddles outside the shower after something like that, clean them up promptly. Water escaping the tub again and again is what causes real trouble underneath it.

Towel bars and handles are not grab bars

They will not support your weight.

Grab bars are a genuine help getting in and out of a tub, but a towel bar is not one. Do not hang from it or stand on it. Enough force can snap it off and shatter the door. If you have children who hang off things, it is worth telling them this one.

Your towels, on the other hand, will be perfectly happy there.

No abrasive or acid-based cleaners

They can scar both the metal and the glass.

Some cleaners on the market today are powerful enough to mark an enclosure permanently. A single application probably will not do it, but the damage accumulates, so it is worth using an appropriate cleaner every time rather than most of the time.

Squeegee the glass after use

For best results, clear the water off rather than letting it dry.

Water spots, mineral deposits and mould are far easier to prevent than to remove. Left for weeks or months they stop being a cleaning job and start being a restoration one — which we do offer, but you would rather not need it.

Do not force the door

Excessive force when opening or closing can shatter the glass.

A door that suddenly needs force is telling you something — usually that a roller, hinge or seal wants adjusting. That is a tune-up, and a short one. Forcing it instead is how a panel ends up broken.

Do not hang from or stand on the enclosure

It is not designed to carry your weight.

This includes using the header bar to pull yourself up, and leaning a ladder against the panel during other work in the bathroom.

Choose your glass obscurity carefully

Changing the glass after installation is expensive.

Think about how the room is actually used before choosing. A shower with a good view through a window may want clear or Starfire glass. A shared or street-facing bathroom may want an obscure pattern. If the enclosure is the centrepiece of the room, art glass is worth looking at.

Whatever you choose, it will be tempered. That is the reason a broken panel becomes thousands of blunt pieces rather than large sharp ones.